DeepSeek V3 vs Llama 3.1 405B Instruct

Name: DeepSeek V3
Author: DeepSeek

DeepSeek V3 (2024) and Llama 3.1 405B Instruct (2024) are compact production models from DeepSeek and AI at Meta. DeepSeek V3 ships a 64k-token context window, while Llama 3.1 405B Instruct ships a 128k-token context window. On Massive Multitask Language Understanding, Llama 3.1 405B Instruct leads by 0.1 pts. This comparison covers specs, pricing, API access, capabilities, benchmarks, input and output token costs, and production fit for coding and agent workloads.

DeepSeek V3 is ~2300% cheaper at $0.10/1M; pay for Llama 3.1 405B Instruct only for long-context analysis.

Decision scorecard

Local evidence first

Signal	DeepSeek V3	Llama 3.1 405B Instruct	How to read it
Best for	tool-calling agents and provider-routed production	provider-routed production	Use-case synthesis from product type, capability flags, context, and provider data.
Decision fit	Coding, Agents, and Classification	RAG, Long context, and Classification	Primary workload tags from local decision data.
Context window	64k	128k	Higher is better when prompts, retrieval chunks, or transcripts are large.
Cheapest output	$0.30/1M tokens	$2.40/1M tokens	Cheapest tracked provider route; verify your exact region and tier.
Provider routes	13 tracked	11 tracked	Broader coverage can reduce vendor lock-in and fallback risk.
Shared benchmarks	1 shared	Massive Multitask Language Understanding leader	Visible benchmark lead is 0.1 points on Massive Multitask Language Understanding.

Decision tradeoffs

Choose DeepSeek V3 when...

DeepSeek V3 has the lower cheapest tracked output price at $0.30/1M tokens.
DeepSeek V3 has broader tracked provider coverage for fallback and route flexibility.
DeepSeek V3 uniquely exposes JSON / Tool use in local model data.
Local decision data tags DeepSeek V3 for Coding, Agents, and Classification.

Choose Llama 3.1 405B Instruct when...

Llama 3.1 405B Instruct holds a shared-benchmark lead on Massive Multitask Language Understanding, ahead by 0.1 points.
Llama 3.1 405B Instruct has the larger context window for long prompts, retrieval packs, or transcript analysis.
Local decision data tags Llama 3.1 405B Instruct for RAG, Long context, and Classification.

Monthly cost at traffic

Estimate token spend from the cheapest tracked input and output route or tier on this page.

Lower estimate DeepSeek V3

Requests / monthInput tokens / requestOutput tokens / request

DeepSeek V3

$155

Cheapest tracked route/tier: Bitdeer AI

Llama 3.1 405B Instruct

$2,520

Cheapest tracked route/tier: AWS Bedrock

Estimated monthly gap: $2,365. Batch, cache, alternate speed tiers, and negotiated pricing are excluded from this local estimate.

Switch friction

DeepSeek V3 -> Llama 3.1 405B Instruct

Provider overlap exists on Together AI, Fireworks AI, and NVIDIA NIM; start route-level A/B tests there.
Llama 3.1 405B Instruct is $2.10/1M tokens higher on cheapest tracked output pricing, so quality gains need to justify the spend.
Check replacement coverage for JSON / JSON / Tool use before moving production traffic.

Llama 3.1 405B Instruct -> DeepSeek V3

Provider overlap exists on Fireworks AI, Microsoft Foundry, and NVIDIA NIM; start route-level A/B tests there.
DeepSeek V3 is $2.10/1M tokens lower on cheapest tracked output pricing before cache, batch, or negotiated discounts.
DeepSeek V3 adds JSON / JSON / Tool use in local capability data.

Specs

Specification	DeepSeek V3 DeepSeek	Llama 3.1 405B Instruct AI at Meta
Released	2024-12-26	2024-07-23
Context window	64k	128k
Parameters	671B	405B
Architecture	Mixture of Experts	Decoder Only
License	MITOSI-approved	Llama 3 Community
Openness	Open source	Open weights
Weights	Available	Available
Code	Unknown	Unknown
Commercial use	Commercial use: permitted	Commercial use: conditional
Knowledge cutoff	2024-04	2023-12

Pricing and availability

Pricing attribute	DeepSeek V3	Llama 3.1 405B Instruct
Input price	$0.10/1M tokens	$2.40/1M tokens
Output price	$0.30/1M tokens	$2.40/1M tokens
Providers	DeepInfra Fireworks AI DeepSeek Platform Microsoft Foundry OpenRouter NVIDIA NIM	OctoAI API (Deprecated)Together AI Fireworks AI IBM watsonx Scale AI GenAI Platform NVIDIA NIM

Capabilities

Capability	DeepSeek V3	Llama 3.1 405B Instruct
Vision	No	No
Multimodal	No	No
Reasoning	No	No
JSON / Tool use	Yes	No
Structured outputs	Yes	Yes
Code execution	No	No
IDE integration	No	No
Computer use	No	No
Parallel agents	No	No

Benchmarks

Benchmark	DeepSeek V3	Llama 3.1 405B Instruct
Massive Multitask Language Understanding	88.5	88.6

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Model pages

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Last reviewed: 2026-07-11. Data sourced from public model cards and provider documentation.

Both models

DeepSeek V3 Llama 3.1 405B Instruct